ArtSlut

The Playhouse Stages a Timely Production of Ayad Akhtar’s Thorny Drama Disgraced

Luis Legaspi (as Abe) and Suhail Arastu (as Amir) in The Playhouse's production of Disgraced

If timing is everything then the Playhouse is about to make a point with its production of Disgraced, a thorny drama that earned politically inclined Pakistani American actor/author/playwright Ayad Akhtar a Pulitzer Prize in 2013. Widely produced across the nation in 2016, the 90-minute play zooms in on the complicated life of Amir Kapoor, a successful Manhattan attorney who’s all but divorced himself from his Muslim heritage yet becomes entangled in the court case of an imam charged with crimes agains the state. Fearlessly tackling identity, religion, race, xenophobia and terrorism, Disgraced comes to a head during an explosive dinner party Amir and his wife Emily (a white artist who draws creative inspiration from Islam) host for a couple comprised of a curator and a lawyer. David Rinear directs Suhail Arastu (as Amir) and Kate Glasheen (as Emily) in the San Antonio premiere of what The Washington Post once described as “a tough-minded inquiry that finds urgent dramatic connections in things that divide us.” $10-$40, Mar. 17 – Apr. 9, 8pm Fri-Sat, 3pm Sun, The Playhouse, 800 W. Ashby Pl., (210) 733-7258, theplayhousesa.org.